The Witcher 4's Unreal Fest Showcase Featured No Actual Gameplay

CD Projekt Red has clarified that the recent The Witcher 4 showcase – referred to by many as the first official glimpse at the title's gameplay – that took place at Epic Games' State of Unreal 2025 featured no actual gameplay and was solely intended to demonstrate the technology powering The Witcher 4, not the game itself.

In the description of the showcase on The Witcher's official YouTube channel, the studio emphasized that although the footage might resemble gameplay, it isn't. Instead, the material shown during the event was a tech demo intended to provide a deep dive into the technological foundation of the new Witcher saga, referring to Unreal Engine 5, which CDPR chose over REDengine, the engine previously used for The Witcher 2, The Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077.

The team further reinforced the point that this was not actual gameplay in a statement shared with VGC, stressing that it was merely a demo set in The Witcher 4's world

"This is a tech demo, and a first look at the cutting-edge technology powering The Witcher 4 – but not The Witcher 4 itself," said a CD Projekt spokesman. "It showcases the powerful foundation we're building in close collaboration with Epic Games to push open-world design further than ever before and the core systems and features we're developing using Unreal Engine 5."

Although it's certainly commendable for CDPR to openly admit that no actual gameplay was shown, there's a small caveat that might lead some to believe there was an attempt at deception by the development studio and/or Unreal Engine itself.

The caveat is a small, barely visible "Technical Presentation – Not Actual Gameplay" disclaimer that appears in the version of the showcase uploaded to The Witcher's official YouTube channel, but was not present during the State of Unreal stream – a tiny detail that has lead so many to assume they were seeing actual gameplay in the first place.

Whether this was a deliberate lie by omission to generate buzz around "the game running on PS5 at 60 FPS with ray tracing" – obviously, it's less performance-taxing to run a specially prepared demo than an actual game – or simply an oversight by an Epic Games intern who forgot to include the warning is unclear, and likely will remain so, so ultimately, it's up to everyone to draw their own conclusions.

CDPR version vs. Unreal Fest version:

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